POLITICAL CAMPAIGN DRAGGING AT FINISH

The campaign which orators in both parties were proclaiming early in the summer as the "most momentous in the nation's history" is dragging on to-a dull and uninteresting finish.

On November 2 the voters of the nation will decide between Harding and Cox, and while the voting, because of equal suffrage, will be heavier by several millions than in any previous presidential elections, the uprising of the people, which the party leaders expected and predicated, has failed dismally to materialize.

In scattered sections of the country interest is undoubtedly at fever heat, but due entirely to local conditions. Ohio, for instance, is excited because it claims both candidates. Indiana is agog over the hottest senatorial election in its history. Illinois has a factional war of unusual bitterness. But here in Massachusetts not half so much interest attaches to this campaign as to that a year ago, when the law and order issue which Governor Coolidge brought to the surface in the police strike resulted in the casting of half a million votes. The Bay State apathy may be due almost entirely to the optimism which the Republicans have enjoyed for a year, and to the corresponding discouragement and disorganization of the Democrats.

Democrats Weak in Massachusetts

The Democratic party in this state is literally "shot to pieces." Its only leader of consequence, Senator David I. Walsh, has refused to take any part in the campaign. The state committee has made a few motions, but has found itself at all times handicapped by lack of funds, and while the Democratic women had their committees working months before the Republicans, the latter scored heavily in the all-important registration work in every section of the state; not excluding Boston.

Governor Coolidge did not make his prediction of a Republican majority in Boston the other day merely because the wish was father to the thought, but he had unofficial advises on registration figures, which showed that in some of the Republican wards the women's registration nearly reached 100 percent, while in the overwhelmingly Demarcate wards the women did not take the trouble to register.

Cox's Visit Accomplished Little

Democrats were in hopes that the visit of Governor Cox to Boston would offset the advantage which the Republicans have thus obtained. Cox will undoubtedly away some votes, but the Republicans are putting a new vim into their campaign during the last few days and are not worrying. Governor Coolidge's speeches in the South will also have an effect here, for Massachusetts people have come to admire the homely common sense which their executive puts into a public utterance, and their only criticism of his campaign to date is that he has spoken so infrequently.

The Democrats continue to capitalize what they term the "independent swing to Cox." Wide circulation is being given to the views of Dr. Chales W. Eliot, president emeritus of the University, who is advertised by the Democrats as an "independent supporter of Cox." Dr. Eliot spoiled this play somewhat the other night at the Underwood dinner by admitting that he is pretty regularly a Democrat. The Democrats had also been pinning hopes on an eleventh hour declaration by Dr. Eliot's successor, President Lowell, in favor of Cox, but that does not seem probable.